Correspondents become brand custodians for BBC World's new campaign

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BBC World has just launched a campaign that features correspondents and camera-persons as brand custodians. The campaign was launched last week on January 27, 2005.

The new global advertising campaign for the 24-hour news and information channel BBC World, correspondents and cameramen tell the stories behind some of their most extraordinary assignments.

'Putting News First' is the biggest brand campaign for BBC World since the channel's launch 10 years ago. It reaffirms both BBC World's news-gathering strengths and the extraordinary commitment of the teams, who contribute to the channel's output.

BBC World's head of marketing Seema Kotecha explains the reason behind this strategy. She says, "The research, we conducted around the world, showed an extraordinary consistency when viewers said what they valued most about the channel. One quote in particular from the focus groups reflects our USP: "CNN is reporting, BBC World is journalism." We feel we have found a way of capturing this commitment to real journalism in the campaign."

The campaign features the real-life experiences of journalists such as veteran world affairs editor John Simpson, South Africa correspondent Hilary Anderson and cameraman Fred Scott, showcasing instances which illustrate the lengths to which the newsgathering team behind BBC World will go to deliver the news. One of the campaigns features how a mobile phone, belonging to cameraman Vaughan Smith, saved him when a sniper's bullet in Serbia passed through the contents of his pocket and lodged in the handset's casing.

The campaign creative was developed by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO based on the results of a research study commissioned by the channel to learn more about international news viewers and their perceptions of the BBC World brand.

The brand promotion spearheads a new look and feel for the channel, with a new studio set, on-screen graphics and technical improvements rolling out over the next three months. The TV work is complemented by a series of print executions, which were launched on January 10, 2005.